Hi, all!

It's been too long, and I am sorry for that. My surgery went well, with a slight, bothersome complication afterwards, but now that I'm done with radiation, I'm getting back to writing. Houston and C.J. never leave me alone, so now I'm getting their story jump-started again. This a short chapter, but I am hoping to get another one out in a couple of weeks. Let me know what you think and thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes!

"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better." Twelfth Night, Act 3, Scene 1

Betty, dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes, was running back up the Wailua Falls trail as fast as she could. She had run to the car with her husband, Jack, and hollered to him, "Open the trunk! I'll take the extra towels and first aid kit back. You go call for an ambulance." With only a nod, he had fumbled with the keys a bit, opened the trunk, then dashed to the driver's side, threw open the door, and hopped behind the steering wheel. She was glad they had decided to back the rental, a new Toyota Cressida, into their parking spot, because he took off as soon as the trunk shut.

As Betty advanced up the trail, she could hear a loud scream. Her mind flashed to several minutes ago when she and her husband, who had been enjoying a dip in the pool at the base of the waterfalls, had exited, dried off and then put their shoes on. As they made their way back down the trail to the car, they couldn't help but notice and overhear the other couple who had been swimming in the falls.

They had been there even before she and her husband had arrived. They seemed to be a very happy, loving twosome and the very fit woman appeared to be about five or six months along but still looked great in a bikini. The couple had exited the water, dried off and left; leaving her and Jack to have a few minutes of alone time before having to get out themselves. It was their 10th anniversary, and they had a tour of a macadamia nut factory, then a fancy dinner to get ready for that evening. As they strolled towards the parking lot, they noticed that the bikini clad woman was leaning on a large rock, her body turned so all they could see was her side.

Betty was struck by how beautiful the pregnant woman was. It didn't escape her that Jack had noticed to. The brunette had snipped, a little more loudly than she obviously had intended, "No! I'm not due for two and half more weeks!" Then her body convulsed in what was an obvious contraction. Betty had given birth to four children, so she knew a contraction when she saw one. It surprised her that the woman could possibly be that close to her due date. She hardly had any tummy at all, and it made Betty a little envious. She was still trying to loose the baby weight from the second one.

The tall, handsome man replied in an amused tone, "I don't think this baby cares about the due date." Then he kneeled down at her feet.

She began shaking her head, "No, no, no, no…" She said through the contraction. She took some labored breaths, tears running down her cheeks, then explained, "It's my first baby. The books said I would be in labor for at least twelve hours." She took a couple of breaths and tried to convince the man, "We've got time to get to the hospital. I have to have my baby at the hospital." Then another contraction hit her hard.

But the man, who had been peeking under the woman's bathing suit bottoms, implored her, "I see why you were having trouble walking. Babe, put your hand right here." The woman had complied as he guided her hand under her bathing suit bottoms, then he informed her, "That's the baby's head. You're having this baby now."

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Sometime in the past:

C.J. was standing in the kitchen with a horror struck look on her face. It was Sunday morning and Kai's friend, Evan, a Navy Seal Special Ops officer, had just dropped the bombshell that a sweep of the ranch not only turned up evidence that all of the cameras were hacked, but that there were "bugs" in various places throughout the house and the barn. She began in a halted manner, "So… So, they heard… everything?!"

Houston had been equally stunned, but recovered a little quicker. He put a hand on her right shoulder to calm her. "It's okay, C.J."

She was appalled; thinking he must not understand the severity of this situation, "It is NOT okay, Houston! They heard every word, every…" She was trying to remember everything that they had said while making love.

Houston turned to Evan, "Can you give us a moment?"

Evan, a tall, muscular man with sandy blonde hair and piercing green eyes, nodded and then crossed the kitchen, slid the door open, stepped through it, and closed it behind him. Kai had let him know that C.J. was not a woman to be second-guessed and that Houston was one of the few men who could match her intellect, so he knew to let them work this out in private.

Houston faced her and put his other hand gently on her other shoulder, "I know this seems bad, but it will be okay." He could see in her eyes that his words were not easing her tension.

She blinked while shaking her head to get her thoughts to line up in a more orderly fashion, "They can use this to…" She stepped back then, put her right hand on her right hip and her left hand gripped the sling tighter, took another calming breath before continuing, "The reason I knew the impostor that Elgin Cody hired wasn't you was because of how he acted and what he said. They were able to copy your face, and get some of your mannerisms down, but…" She was working hard to remain calm, "If they had had this kind of information. Private conversations, especially the ones we've had in bed…"

She rubbed her forehead then let her hand drop back to her hip, "If I tried to confirm it was you by asking a question that only you would know the answer to, but they would have that answer, too…" She shuddered a little at the thought.

He nodded his head slowly as he considered what she was saying, then told her, "You're right." He stepped closer to her and stroked her cheek gently with his thumb while looking deep into her eyes. "You're right. But let's table that for now, and hear what else Evan has to say. Then you and I will sit down and figure out a way to be able to be sure that the person standing in front of us is us. Okay?"

She nodded and added, "We need to do that for Will and Uncle Roy, too." Even though Uncle Roy would be the less likely target, because finding a man his age who would be willing to not only go through face altering surgery, but to have a trache and g-tube put in, it would still be needed out of an abundance of caution in C.J.'s estimation.

He caressed her cheek, "Alright, alright." Then he looked out the sliding glass door and waved Evan back in. They all sat down at the kitchen table, and he asked Evan, "So how many did you find? Was there a central place the lines were going into?"

Evan stated flatly, "We found one in every room of the house, two out by the pool area and two in the barn. My guys are sweeping your cars and the phones. We didn't find any in the bunk house, so that's good. We found the box that the lines were being fed into. To be honest, they look like they've been here a while."

Houston's face dropped, "Whadda ya' mean?" Houston didn't want to believe what he was being told.

"We think that they were here before you moved back in. Possibly from when you lived here before."

Houston nodded but said nothing, so Evan continued, "We'd like to do a sweep of your office and see if they've tapped into any of those feeds."

C.J. blurted out, "I want you to check my house, too." Houston looked over at her still shocked face, took her hand in his and nodded at her.

Evan nodded, "Sure, we'll do that after we're done here." He gave her a reassuring smile. Kai had told him about C.J., but his description of her intelligence and beauty paled in comparison when you were in her presence. He felt bad for his friend, because he could see how connected she and Mr. Houston were and that Kai really had had no chance with her in the end. But Kai, being Kai, had said, "Bro, I'm just happy for her and that she gets to marry her 'ulana."

Just then another young man rapped on the sliding glass door and Houston motioned for him to enter.

As the young man opened the door, Houston inquired, "How can we prevent this in the future?" He could see how having the cameras could be more of a liability if they could be used to spy on them.

"Well, you can buy the same kind of sweeping equipment that we use. We'll set up a system that will let you know if anyone has tampered with the box that the perimeter cameras are wired through, and you'll want to encrypt or scramble the signal, too." The phone rang and C.J. went to answer it, and Evan looked over at Tyrone, which was his cue to begin.

Tyrone nodded, "There was a homing beacon on the Excalibur." He handed it to Evan who examined it, then he smiled at Houston, "Sweet ride, by the way." Houston half grinned back at him, but Tyrone caught the glare that Even shot at him and he continued, "But none on any of the other vehicles."

Evan nodded, "OK. Ms. Parsons wants us to do a sweep of her house too, so why don't you guys start packing up the equipment and head on over there." Tyrone nodded, then turned and exited through the sliding glass door he had entered through. Evan looked back at Houston, "So, we'll get you an estimate on the equipment and report back to you on what we find at Ms. Parsons' house."

Both men stood up and shook hands. Houston glanced over at C.J., who was still on the phone, then whispered, "Don't tell C.J. if you find anything, just let me know. I don't want her any more worried than she already is, okay?"

Evan gave him an uncertain look, but then nodded and turned to leave. He saw that C.J. was walking back over so he stopped to say 'good-bye' to her.

She walked back over to where Houston was standing and very calmly told Evan, "Evan, if you don't tell me what you find at my house, I will hire another company who will." Then she looked at Houston and after their eyes locked, they had a silent conversation for several seconds.

Houston let out a sigh, "Fine." Then he looked at Evan, "Tell both of us what you find." After Evan exited, he asked, "Who was on the phone?" Hoping that would stave off any lecture from her about being over protective.

She quickly gave him the look, then told him, "It was Carol. She wants to take me wedding dress shopping, but I told her I would speak to you about it, first."

His forehead wrinkled in confusion, "You don't need to talk to me about dress shopping." Then he smiled broadly, "Go, and have fun." He was thinking it would be a nice diversion for her from not being able to go to the office to work.

She equivocated, "Wellll, she wants to take me to Paris and Milan and I'd be gone for over a week." She paused while she tried to read his reaction, so she added, "I know we have work to do, but since you don't want me at the office…"

"C.J., I never said I don't want you there," He corrected, "I'm just concerned about you jumping off the helipad again."

She let out a sigh, "I know. I do." Then she tried to make her case again, "But I'm off all my pain meds and I've been doing fine." It had only been a week, but other than the headache from out running Erin/Meredith, she had been well. Occasional sensitivity to light, but nothing that drawing the curtains or wearing sunglasses hadn't been able to help.

He stepped over to her and put his arms around her waist and she put her good arm up so that her hand was resting on the back of his neck in a half embrace. He kissed her, "I don't want to rush it and have you suffer a relapse." He kissed her again, then reminded her, "You still have a couple of more weeks in the sling, too." He kissed her a little more passionately, before telling her his thoughts, "You know, since Uncle Roy isn't coming home until tomorrow and Will won't be here…" The doctors had decided to keep Roy one more night just to be on the safe side.

She grinned, "You wanna play doctor?" He wiggled his eyebrows in response, so she kissed him, but then pulled away, "Sorry, pal. I want to be there when the guys sweep my house for bugs." She walked to the closet and grabbed her purse while he watched her hungrily.

As she was heading for the door, he followed her while saying, "Wait, wait, wait! This doctor is willing to make house calls." She grinned and took him by the hand and led him out the door.

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Sometime in the future:

As Betty came to the clearing by the falls, she saw the woman still half leaning, half sitting on the rock. The woman's bikini bottoms were off and with one last push the handsome man caught the baby as it cascaded from the new mom. He announced ecstatically, "Babe, it's a boy!" Grinning ear to ear, he began wiping off then, wrapping the squalling infant in one of their beach towels. He covered the baby's nose with his mouth, sucked, then turned and spit out some mucus.

The woman had a mixture of joy, relief, and something else on her tear stained face. "A boy? We have a son?" She was shaking a little from the effort to bring her child into the world.

The man smiled, "Yeah, C.J. Here, hold him." Then he handed the baby to her as he started tying off the umbilical cord with his shoe lace.

Betty arrived and began putting the beach towels down for C.J. to sit on. "Come on, honey, you'll be more comfortable on the towels than leaning on the rock until the paramedics arrive."

She looked away from the wailing baby for a moment, shaking her head, "Oh, no, I don't want to ruin your towels." She could feel the fluids running down her legs, the part of birth that she hadn't been looking forward to. Why did bringing a baby into the world have to be so messy?

Betty laughed, "Don't you worry about that, they're hotel towels. I'm sure they've dealt with worse. Besides you still have to deliver the placenta. They always skip that part on TV and in the movies." Before she helped C.J. down to the towels, she handed the man the first aid kit, "I don't know if there's anything useful in there. Not for delivering a baby anyways."

He took it, "Thanks." Then he cut the cord with his pocket knife, something he always had on him, especially when he was doing any sort of hiking. He looked at C.J., "Babe, why don't you try nursing him. They say that usually gets the placenta moving." He had read some of the baby books, too.

C.J. nodded and moved her bikini top to the side and placed the newborn on her breast. It took him a minute or two, but after a little coaching from Betty, he finally latched on, and looked up at his mama through barely opened eyes. She whispered through her tears, "Hi, baby. I've been waiting so long to meet you, but you really could have waited a few more weeks."

Betty asked, "So, do you have a name for this little guy?" She noted how natural the new mom was holding her son, gazing at him lovingly and gently wiping the vernix from his arms as he suckled.

C.J. glanced up and said, "Jedrick. His great uncle wanted his name to be Jedrick. It means 'strong man'." Then she looked back down at him, "And that's what you'll be; a strong man." Then she leaned down to kiss his little head, and inhale his scent.

Betty grinned, "That's a good name." Then she added, "I'm Betty by the way, my husband's Jack."

C.J. smiled, "I'm C.J. and this is Kai."